Being a minister of grace
(This is a challenge I sent to the leadership team of our youth ministry)
Think of it as a pop machine on a hot day, but this one is free! Just like that, you are a "grace dispenser", a minister of grace. That means that you are one who has recieved the un-earned favor, forgiveness, and love of God - so you must pass it on. People need grace more than a coke on a hot day.
Dispensing grace is spiritual warfare - it challenges the logic of man (payback, getting even, revenge) and offers what only God can offer - forgiveness. Grace is not accepting of sin, but grace loves the person. Grace challenges the enemy's agenda in our life, the lives of our friends and family, and Satan has no waepon to answer it or defense against it!
Your friends at youth, your unsaved co-workers, aquaintances, and especially family, need grace from you. They need supernatural understanding and forgiveness that points to God.
So the next time something or someone ticks you off, don't respond by thinking of yourself. Instead, dispense grace. You have it in you (His name is Jesus).
1 Corinthians 1: 4-5
1 Peter 4:7-11
Think of it as a pop machine on a hot day, but this one is free! Just like that, you are a "grace dispenser", a minister of grace. That means that you are one who has recieved the un-earned favor, forgiveness, and love of God - so you must pass it on. People need grace more than a coke on a hot day.
Dispensing grace is spiritual warfare - it challenges the logic of man (payback, getting even, revenge) and offers what only God can offer - forgiveness. Grace is not accepting of sin, but grace loves the person. Grace challenges the enemy's agenda in our life, the lives of our friends and family, and Satan has no waepon to answer it or defense against it!
Your friends at youth, your unsaved co-workers, aquaintances, and especially family, need grace from you. They need supernatural understanding and forgiveness that points to God.
So the next time something or someone ticks you off, don't respond by thinking of yourself. Instead, dispense grace. You have it in you (His name is Jesus).
1 Corinthians 1: 4-5
1 Peter 4:7-11
posted by Rob Petkau at 2:05 PM
4 Comments:
Dispensing grace is spiritual warfare - it challenges the logic of man (payback, getting even, revenge) and offers what only God can offer...
Hey Rob, I like that, it's like God's weapon of " Mass " destruction. And it's stealth, in that alot of times we don't see it, it penetrates our defence mechanisms...hitting us where we are most vulnerable...the heart. And so many times we think it is us that is us...but it is all God. You might say we are the launcher...but he provides the armour piercing spiritual ammunition.
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I sure needed to read this right now.. especially in a world where supposed injustices are rampant!
Thanks Rob.. great reminder, and I love the pop machine analogy. It totally speaks to me about our attitude towards people and the choice we can make in any situation: Mace, or Grace!
Great thoughts Rob - this is the kind of thing that sets relationship apart from Religion. The religionist in each of us wants to preach to all the sinners and ignore the fact that we are in that group as well.
Something I have been saying for a long time is that the church concentrates far too much on trying to correct the world - mobilizing against same-sex marriage, mobilizing against abortion - picking political parties and naming them things like "The Religious Right" or the "Fundamentalists". Where is the church that mobilizes to look after the poor and disenfrachised - the church that supports the single mother who is raising the child of a dead beat or rapist or even the one who overcomes the shame that "Christian" people put on her for having a child out of wedlock.
Where is the church that mobilizes in the name of political reform, social justice and the stewardship of the environment? These things are just as important spiritual issues (perhaps more so, considering the amount that this kind of issue is talked about in the Bible compared to the others) as homosexuality and abortion.
If the world saw the church loving, giving and serving - "dispensing grace" as it, it would be much more inclined to hear the churh when it comes time for correction.
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